I post this as anecdotal evidence based on my experience only, of watching England in a foreign land as perhaps an illustration of why England football fans (and perhaps even English people) are so universally derided and despised.
I spent last week in Portugal with family, 10 adults and two pre school age kids. We were there for the four quarter finals and both semis. On Friday night we sat in a sports bar/restaurant which was absolutely rammed with Portuguese fans willing their team on. We neither cheered one team nor booed the other, we enjoyed the game as neutrals in the friendly company of the locals who were absolutely gutted at losing the shoot out but remained calm, friendly and normal.
Compare and contrast the following night at the same sports bar for England’s quarter final. We sat at the same tables, behaved in the same way, neither cheering when Switzerland scored nor visibly rooting against England (which took some effort). The atmosphere in the place was markedly different from the previous night. Rowdier, which is fine of course, far more drunk and as the night went on our lack of visible support for England (and it seems our Welsh voices) had obviously been clocked.
During the shoot out when Pickford saved the Swiss penalty, some absolutely mullered cockney wench, with her crispy red, union flag sporting Neanderthal fella close behind, ran up to our table and shouted “HAVE THAT YA FACKING WELSH WANKERS” at us. She didn’t wait for a response and apart from a wry “what on earth was that” smile between us she didn’t get one. Thenat the end of the shoot out some gap toothed northern monstrosity decided that instead of celebrating his team’s win his first stop would be at our table to abuse us. It went something like this
“Why are you cunts even here?”
“Watching the football mate”
“But you’re not even English”
“Well spotted”
“You’ve just sat there quietly all night”
“Aye. Watching the game see”
“Did you want Switzerland to win”
At this point a bare faced lie was prudent. A wrong answer here changes an entire holiday.
“Not really mate. Weren’t bothered either way. Congrats to your boys. Could go all the way now”
“Ah fuck off you fucking wankers”.
And off he went. We stayed in the villa for the semi final.
Anyway, this is a very long winded way of saying that England fans ruin everywhere they go and I hope they get fucking battered into oblivion tomorrow night. Viva Espana.
Thank you for listening.
